Windows Server ® 2008 File Services Infrastructure Planning and Design Published: October 2008 Updated: July 2009

What Is IPD? Guidance to clarify and streamline the planning and design process for Microsoft ® infrastructure technologies. IPD: Defines decision flow Describes decisions to be made Relates decisions and options for the business Frames additional questions for business understanding IPD guides are available at Page 2 |

WINDOWS SERVER 2008 FILE SERVICES Getting Started Page 3 |

Benefits of Using the File Services Guide Benefits for Business Stakeholders / Decision Makers Most cost-effective design solution for implementation Alignment between the business and IT from the beginning of the design process to the end Benefits for Infrastructure Stakeholders / Decision Makers Authoritative guidance Business validation questions ensuring solution meets requirements of business and infrastructure stakeholders High integrity design criteria that includes product limitations Fault tolerant infrastructure Infrastructure that is sized appropriately for business requirements Page 4 |

Benefits of Using the File Services Guide (Cont’d) Benefits for Consultants or Partners Rapid readiness for consulting engagements Planning and design template to standardize design and peer reviews A “leave-behind” for pre- and post-sales visits to customer sites General classroom instruction/preparation Benefits for the Entire Organization Using the guide should result in a design that will be sized, configured, and appropriately placed to deliver a solution for stated business requirements Page 5 |

File Services and the Core Infrastructure Optimization Model Page 6 |

Purpose and Overview Purpose To provide guidance for designing a File Services infrastructure Agenda What’s new in Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services infrastructure design process Page 7 |

What’s New in Windows Server 2008 R2 Page 8 | Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces new functionality and enhancements to Windows file services that provide improved performance, increased reliability, and greater flexibility for users, including the following: BranchCache Support for DFS-R in failover clusters Read-only DFS-R replicas File Classification Infrastructure (FCI)

File Services Decision Flow Page 9 |

Step 1: Determine the Scope of the File Services Project Determine scope of the project Organizational units that will be participating in the redesign Geographic areas that will be included Determine goals of the redesign New corporate security requirements New governance requirements (ISO audit, HIPAA, and so on) Performance issues Create a scope document Page 10 |

Step 2: Determine the Files, Servers, and Clients That Will Be Included Collect an inventory of current file storage environment Total storage used at location Encryption Replication DFS-N in use Shadow Copies Fault tolerance in use Number of clients Client locations File types Other workloads Page 11 |

Step 3: Assess the Need for Replication or Caching Determine whether replication is required In replication, copies of each file are kept on multiple servers Decide whether to use BranchCache Caches copies of most recently used files on a local server or workstations Page 12 |

Step 4: Design BranchCache Infrastructure Select BranchCache mode Hosted – uses a server running Windows Server 2008 R2 Distributed – cache is stored across Windows 7 PCs in branch Determine placement of the cache Determine size of the cache 5% of hard drive allocated by default, but customizable Page 13 |

Step 5: Design DSF-R Infrastructure Design replication groups Design the replication topology Choose folder replication option Page 14 |

Step 6: Design the File Services Infrastructure Determine file server placement Determine how many file servers will be needed Determine content servers for BranchCache Design server hardware Design server fault tolerance Page 15 |

Step 7: Determine Whether Namespace Services Will Be Required Determine whether DFS namespace will be implemented Determine the number of namespaces Determine the namespace modes Design the DFS namespace roots Design folder targets Page 16 |

Conclusion Defined the goals and scope of the project Assessed the current File Services infrastructure Determined whether file replication and/or caching are required and, if so, designed those services for the File Services infrastructure Designed a new File Services infrastructure Determined if namespace services are required and, if so, designed those services. Page 17 | All the IPD guides are available at

Find More Information Download the full document and other IPD guides: Contact the IPD team: View the Microsoft Solution Accelerators Web site: Page 18 |

Questions?